Hello....tap tap..helloooo anyone still out there?

I am still alive. I haven't gone anywhere. In case anyone wondered.

Did anyone wonder?

Hello.

HellloooOOO? tap tap tap.....anybody out there?

I've just been taking a little break. I'm still cooking, and making many lists of things I want to write about. Working out more...yes I said working out. As in excersicing....goodness I can't even spelled the dam word!

I may just come back with more than a whole new blog, maybe I'll come back a minus a donut around my middle. (I doubt it.....last night I was watchin' Toddlers and Tiara's with my arm up to my elbow in the XXL bag of M&M's my son won from his piano teacher.)

There has been alot going on in our home; in our life; in our family. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed for a little while, but I think I'm back on track.

This just may be my last Strawberry CAKE post,....but maybe not, before I make the transition to my new blog site.

I feel like I'm starting a new relationship, and I really can't or shouldn't go back to the old one. It feels kind of like when your senior year of high school is coming to a close, you need to move on, say good-bye to your first love. It's a weird. You keep coming back, but you know it needs to be over, you have to move on. He will always be a part of you but, you can never return to the way things were. Just friends....

Strawberry CAKE I love you. You will always be apart of me. Sniff...snot...snort....scuse me, a minute............

Pah-pa-pa-pa-pa-pah (that's my bottom lip quivering).

I do need to go through my queue and clean it up...there might be a few things to throw at you yet before I move on.

I thought you might like to relive my Strawberry Cake adventure with a few favorite posts, in no particular order. Chicken Caesar Wrap my daughters favorite lunch! Thursdays Ramblings on Friday came about when I decided I just needed to clear my mind, to write just to write with no real direction, you all seemed to like it. Remember these two Rascally Pilgrims they are regulars at our Thanksgiving dinner table. Then there's these scrumptious morsels Pumpkin Spice Donut Muffins! Never say Never, something I wish I'd learned earlier in life. Then there were all the PW posts, lots and lots of P-doob posts, 46 to be exact...stalker. This post received the most comments of any of my posts! Saturday Morning Tradition seemed to be a favorite also. Here are a couple of my personal favorites, Boys, Paczki! & Hairballs, and Chicken Divan. Oh and this interview was unforgettable....I know kinda random, but hey what more would you expect.

Do you have a favorite post? A favorite post that I wrote....not trying to put you on the spot or anything...just wondering.

Feedback is always good.....chirp, chirp. Flippin crickets!

Ok on that note here is some more randomness in the form of photos. Hope you enjoy!

My sweet Seestor and I at my first Cowgirl Dinner Party.

Aren't they fun?! This was on one of your road trip adventures.

Isn't he lovely...dreamy...that's my man.

Pie Crust polka dot period

Cadillac Graveyard

I love this, my husband hates it. I see kids having fun, he sees kids not taking care of their stuff.

The beach at Lake Michigan.

My third child zipping through life. Smiling all the while.

My second child. Ever the creative one.

This is my fourth child, she's a fire cracker!!

She loves heading off early in the morning to the Farmers Market with me.

Then I found this picture of her....precious chubby cheeked brown baby.

And this picture of the day we brought her home. Look at the look on her sisters face, "Yeh well she's not all that." Priceless.

I love flowers.

My firstborn. Dare Devil. Extremely competitive, won't stop until it's perfect. I think he ended up jumping 14 skateboards this day. Wacky. I couldn't watch. I had to have another parent take this photo. Thank you Rob.

Jack.

The hero hairball, donut eating numb skull of an ever lovin' canine.

Three kinds of pie, because who can eat just one kind of pie?

This is my monkey, sometimes he can be found on my back while cooking.

This is Bessy. The weird squirrel that runs around in our backyard. We think she was in a freak nut transporting accident and her tail was blown off. She is a nutty squirrel. No pun intended.

Braces, now goggles.

She runs...like the wind. I think she must have been switched at birth. Me no run. Only to the pantry.

This is what I need to do today...pick me some berries.

The Johnsons LOVE the 4th of July! It is a day for parades, basketball tournaments, eating, swimming, eating, games, fireworks, and enjoying friends. I HEART Independence Day!! Very thankful for where I live.

Red, White, and Blue ah-oo ah-oo ah-00...

One of the most relaxing weekends of my life.

The Pee-doob girls. I luv you ladies!

Thanks for stopping by. Ya'll come back now ya hear!

LuvYa.

UPDATE: BwoB help for Joplin

First, I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for the out pouring of concern for my family in Joplin MO. I cannot express my gratitude for your generosity. Bloggers with out Borders raised over $2000!!!

After launching the fundraising project for Joplin, it came to BwoB's attention that another bloggers family had also been affected by the destruction of the tornadoes that had hit Arkansas. Maggy of Three Many Cooks emailed me and asked if I minded sharing the funds raised. How could I say no. Good golly Miss Molly so many in need, "Of course I will share!!!". You know I always say, "It's nice to share.". Half of the monies raised will go to Confessions of a Cookbook Queens family in Denning, Arkansas.

I was really hoping that I would be able to make the trip to Missouri, sadly that is not going to happen. BUT my mom is heading up there (she lives in Florida, so for her it's "up there") tomorrow morning. She will help out our family as they prepare for the funeral of my great aunt, and she will help her cousin who is recovering from complications from severe bruising and cuts from being buried in the rubble from the tornado. Once my mom gets to Joplin I will send her the money and she will present it to the family that we have chosen to help.

I will give you a full update on this families situation, with pictures, as soon as my mom gets all the details to me.

So many of you have been praying and I want to thank you for your prayers. We have seen so many prayers answered in the last 10 days. If you could continue to pray this time for my mom as she heads to Joplin, I would really appreciate it. My cousin told me on the phone that the pictures online and the news do not even begin to show the devastation in Joplin. Pray for strength, health, safety, and a super natural ability to serve those in need, for my mom. Love you mom thanks for being willing to serve and to help us get the donations to the designated family.

Luv U all!! and Thanks Again!

BwoB: Help for Joplin MO

Bloggers with out Borders (BwoB) is a blogger-based charity whose mission is to help people- bloggers and readers alike- by harnessing the good will of the blogging community. Its founders are Maggy Keet of ThreeManyCooks, Erica Pineda-Ghanny of The Ivory Hut, and Aimee Wimbush-Bourque of Simple Bites. BwoB officially launches in July 2011.

Sunday a half-mile wide tornado ripped through the town of Joplin MO. and flattened much of the town and smacked directly into the city hospital, it left many homeless, and mourning the loss of loved ones. My family being one of them. My Great Aunt was killed when the nursing home she was living in was flattened. My Uncle was visiting her but somehow survived, he was released from the hospital today. My cousin, their daughter, was buried under rubble after being thrown from her car during the tornado, and is very banged up and bruised. Luckily their homes were spared, but many homes were not. Some have lost all they have including loved ones. Today the death toll rose to 116.

Photo Credit: Photo Gallery - World - IBNLive

While checking my Facebook Monday morning I saw the status that Kristen of Dine and Dish has posted to her page. I was SHOCKED. I had family there! I couldn't believe the horrific pictures. I called my mom, and this started the chain of phone calls that led to us finally finding out the full extent of the devastation of Joplin MO., where my extended family lives.

I was numb. What could I do? How could I help. I realized the most important thing I could do was to pray. I prayed, alot. I also put a request prayers from my Twitter and Facebook friends. The response was overwhelming, my prayers where answered, in the form of an email, I received on Tuesday, from Maggy from Three Many Cooks. She offered the assistance of Bloggers without Borders (explained above) to raise money for my family and those in need in the city of Joplin Wow really?! How could I say no? I said, yes of course, I would get the money there and let everyone know who it went to and how it helped.

Wham BAM kaZAM! Before I knew it all three of these lovely, talented, very busy ladies had a blog post up on their websites and were collecting funds for me to distribute to the people, organizations and/or local efforts that need help in Joplin. I was so overcome with gratitude that I started to blubber like a baby. Snot everywhere. It was not pretty. But it was a happy cry...a thankful bawl....a joyful sob, very thankful for the way my itty bitty blog has brought so many incredible people into my life.

So now I am asking you...my readers, friends, and family to make donations to Bloggers without Borders. No amount is too small! And it's super easy to donate.

You just need to:

1. click on one of the three links below

2. click on the donate button

Three Many Cooks

Simple bites

Ivory Hut

Voila! That's all there is to it.

I want to thank you in advance for trusting me and the three bloggers above with your hard earned money. I promise that it will be put to good use for those in need, as a result of the devastation from the tornado, in Joplin, MO., on Sunday, May 22nd.

Again, your prayers and generosity have blown me and my family away!

Thank you for your support!

Root Canal and ramblings......

Thello! E hadda geth a woot thanal thaday. Em a lithel numBah, and I'm dribblen' my coffee down my front, and spewing crumbs all over my key board....because heaven forbid I wait for the numbness to go away before I start to fill my pie hole again.

Yeah, so I finally got up the guts to go through with this root canal. I think I canceled it twice, and made excuses for a year or so, then I had to get braces put back on my teeth because I was naughty and didn't wear my retainer at night......well really I lost it while on vacation and then just totally forgot about it. Out of sight out of mind. So the braces held the root canal off for another 9 months. When I was in for my last cleaning, they hog tied me and sucked my spit and blew air in my mouth until I cried UNCLE and made an appointment.....fer this gal-darn woot thanal.

PAUSE: If you have had a root canal, you know they are really not that bad. It's just me. It's me being scared of possible torture, and then the fact that I just can't stand to sit still, in a dentist chair, for 90 minutes, it cramps my style in more ways than you know. Resume rambling......

I subconsciously forgot to write this appointment in on my calendar....if I had an iPhone then I could do it all immediately from that device and sync it to my computer, but for now I'm stuck with the paper calendar hanging on a nail from the cupboard, which I frequently forget to write things in...and sometimes when I do it's a pain because the ink doesn't want to write cause my pen is virtually upside down while writing........SO back to my forgetting to write it on the calendar. I knew I had scheduled it in May sometime after the departure of our house guests. I called my dentist office on Monday hoping it was a couple weeks out so I would have time to make an excuse and reschedule with out being a total annoyance to the scheduler.

MY PHONE CALL: me "Good Morning! How are you this morning? This is Sheila Johnson...Hey I was wondering....cause I kinda forgot to write it on my calendar.....um....when is that root canal I scheduled?" them....a little too quickly "We are looking forward to seeing you 9 am THIS Thursday morning!" the looking forward to seeing you made me feel guilty about potentially wanting to break our date and then the speed of the answer made me wonder if they had been waiting for my call. Hmmmmm....they probably have had big lime green post-it notes all over the break room and on every computer screen SHEILA JOHNSON MAY 12, 9AM DON'T LET HER CANCEL!!! me "Oh great! I will see you then". Hang up, GASP, pant.....grumble "criminy" under my breath....UGH! I was just gonna have to suck it up and get it over with.

This was the morning. The root canal morning. All week long my kids kept asking me about Thursday..."can we do this that or the other thing?", and my dramatic reply was "that's the day of my ROOT CANAL!". Like I was having heart surgery or something. I know I'm a kook. Now it's only two hours later, the worst part is over, and I am wondering what the HECK I was being such a drama queen about. I am still numb, however. Maybe by the time I get done with my rambling...if you are still with me I will tell you different.

So this is how it all went down....I arrive. They don't even let me get comfy in the waiting room...they take me right back, and seat me in a comfy chair, legs up, head rest....one of those posturepedic types. First they take a mold of my tooth area to make the temporary and eventually my new permanent toof. Then the dental girl (sorry I know there is a more technical term, but that's what I call her), Kristin, she's super sweet, shoves a whole lottah cotton soaked in numbing medicine back in the lower, right corner of my mouf. That gets to stay there for a few minutes while she gets me all hooked up with my bib and suctions tools, and a chest full of other things of which I have no vocabulary for. The new thing this time was that I could have my very own iPod with Pandora and headphones to jam out during my procedure, then of course the cool sunglasses. I was lookin' smokin' HOT! Why I didn't have Kristin take a picture is beyond me...I know you would have loved to see me like this....as I would you.

Then entered my Dentist. Very nice man, with blindingly white toofs. Good thing I had my sun glasses on. After a little bit of small talk, he got right down to the business of "numbing me up". The worst part by far. Thank goodness for the distractions of Pandora, and that my hair was caught between the chair and my dentists belly and was pulling rather hard, OUCH! After the shots they left me alone to let it all sink in.

Re-enter dentist, now I am numb, but wishing that I could also have the red Bozo Nose laughing gas too, just like when I was a kid, but I figure its too late to ask. He tips my chair way back. That's when it happens....the post nasal drip.

PAUSE: In the Spring I always go through a period of nasal congestion and this irritating feeling of globs of glue running down the back of my throat. It usually does not bother me too badly, that is until I lay down.....

I feel it start to build, the snot glob, I try to calmly swallow, but then my tongue starts to whack out and convulse. Then I feel the hot rush of sweat from my armpits. None too soon comes the smell of burning flesh. UGHa! You know that smell of hair burning? (Don't tell me you never yanked your hair out as a kid and burned it over your mothers favorite center piece candle.) So I open my eyes maybe I could make eye contact, but I have dark sunglasses on....all I see is my tooth particles flying in the air before my eyes like gnats in the night. I attempt to take a deep cleansing breath through my nose, which only further assits the snot glob farther down my throat....I wonder can they see snot globs sliding down peoples throats as they work. And If they can why don't they take that sucker thing and just suck it right outta there? I would have really appreciated that. I guess I could have put my hand up like they said I should if I was in need, but my fingers were clinging so tightly to the armrests that I forgot I even had arms. SNORK! Oh my! Did I really just gag-snore? I was trying to avoid that loud SNORK sound, but my body was out of control. I opened my eyes again, it was like it never happened, no one even cracked a smile. Are you joking...if I were a dentist and someone SNORKED that loud while I was drilling the ba-geebies out of their mouth, I would have at least given them a little crooked smile....like whoops, those things happen. Instead I SNORK and I'm left laying there wondering....did I really just SNORK loudly, and then gag myself or was it all apart of my very vivid imagination.

ZZZzzzzzzziiinggg...zzzzzzzzzzzwwwwheeeee zzzzzweeeee-weeeee-wweee=weee a few more zings and loud whizzes and my dentist was proclaiming he was all done. No mention of the gagging snort noise I made, no side ways glances at the dentist girl. Maybe I didn't snork....I was too chicken to ask, and I was afraid to talk all numbed up. What's more pathetic snorking loudly or snorking loudly and then asking about it when your mouth is numb and your tongue is hanging to the side like a dead deer. I decided it was best not to bring it up. I wonder if my dentist put in his notes: patient has heavy post nasal drip and snorks.

How was your last dental experience?

OK my tongue is starting to tingle, but my wips are still numbah.

In the words of Edith Ann....."Thaths the troof, Pthhhhhhh!"

Jack the "not so" DUMB dog

We have a dog. Jack. He's a golden retriever. He's a hairball. He's constantly dropping his hair all over my floor, which drives me nuts. Kenny is allergic, and since we are brilliant people we chose a breed that sheds more than any other. Besides the hair and a few pieces of pizza and a scone or two being snatched off the counter I really have no complaints. He's a good dog. He's extremely laid back, but we think he has the brain the size of a pea.

This is Jack. "A-doiy"

"I am regal, brave, and strong, I can stare down squirrels with my laser powers."

This is what it looks like he is saying but honestly we have questioned what really, if anything goes on in that regal looking nogin of his. He's a retriever, but he rarely retrieves. He will stand and stare up a tree looking at a squirrel for days, but he will not play fetch to save his life. He does love to bury things. All kinds of things.

He is always ecstatic to see us when we drive in. We have a long driveway so we pull the trash barrels down on the hitch of the truck. We have to make two trips, and Jack goes through his whole prancing barking routine each time we come back for a new barrel....which is maybe three minutes later, he greets Ken like he has been gone for hours.

Not that we ever tried very hard, but this dog has learned nary a trick...not one, zilch,nada. Too dumb we've said. "Musta been dropped on his head as a pup." Well then there is the tiny matter of the spinning.


Jack will chase his tale until the cows come home. Quite frankly it makes me dizzy. We thought he would out grow it, he's six, he hasn't. He still chases his tale like it's the first time. So all of this combined with many other things has earned him the title of dumb. I know...it's horrible. We love him we really do. We have told him he was dumb more than I like to admit.

He's a good dog though. Dumb as rocks, but a keeper.

"They think I'm dumb as rocks, I'm just a sleeping genius."

At night Jack sleeps in the house. Blocked in by the back door. There is no way he can see out the front of our house. It's impossible from where he sleeps. Keep that in mind.......

Have I ever told you we live next door to Kenny's brother and his wife? We do. Our properties butt up next to each others. They have a barn that is on their land, it sits in front our houses. My brother-n-law loves farming. They have some cows, and their kids have goats, chickens...fresh eggs. It's kinda fun. My kids although they really don't do much with the animals, love having this mini-farm right out their front door.

Jack, well..... he likes to race across the yard barking his fool head off at the cows and then come to a dead stop, and turn and walk quietly away. Goof ball....dumb dog.

Jack has barked maybe once in six years at night. So when we awoke to him barking like a maniac at a little after four in the morning Saturday morning, Kenny bolted out of bed to tell him to hush. But when he got up this is what he saw out our window......

This is why, our "not so dumb" dog, who couldn't see the fire, but sensed it, was barking his fool head off. With in seconds of Kenny getting out of our bed, he hollered for me to call 911 because the barn was on fire. He hollered for me to do it, because he was already on the horn trying to see if his brother was up. That's how brothers are. Brothers first, 911 second. Brother was not up, he had to call again. I got 911 on the first try.

This was my first emergency call. I decided I don't like calling 911. It's scary. It made my armpits shoot streams of water out, so much so I probably should have just gone and put out the fire with my pits, and saved all those firemen guys alot of trouble. My chin was also quivering uncontrollably, making my teeth chatter...I wonder if the 911 operator noticed the teeth chattering.

When I told her how close the barn was to the houses, she calmly told me to stay on the line while I woke all my kiddos up and evacuated them from the house. I did as the nice lady told me. Thanking God all the while that I wasn't rushing them out of a burning house...yet.

The brothers as all the fire trucks in the township arrived....

it seemed like a long time, but they actually got to us quite fast, considering we are on the far edge of the township. We are in one of those spots that confuses people. We are on the border line of two counties, and the edge of a township and just outside of the city limits. Who do we belong to? Of course this ran through my mind, what if no one wants to claim our little patch of land and the whole dad-blamed everything burns down while they decide which fire department to send our way.

I had no need to fear because as this whole nutty four in the morning panic driven scenario was playing out in my head, they were already doing their job.

Which I might add is not an easy one. I am down right in awe of firemen. I am sorry to say, despite watching Backdraft fifty times, I still did not have a true feeling for how it all really goes down, and this was a barn fire. Not a house, or a large building full of people. These men were careful, calculated, compassionate, and they all worked there booties off. The last firetruck (there were 4 or maybe 5) didn't leave until many hours later!


Because of how far off the road our houses and the barn set, they had to run hose all the way down the driveway and down the street to the corner, nearly a quarter mile to the nearest hydrant. Which meant shutting down the road. They had that hose out and pumping faster than you could say fire hose....or at least faster than I could have with my chin having convulsions. See the water blasting out of that hose? Imagine that same water pressure pumping out of your armpits........

You think I exaggerate.

When it was all said and done. Nobody was hurt. Our families and our homes were spared. But my brother-n-law and his family lost all but 4 of their beloved animals, and lots of other things....that can be replaced, but that doesn't make it any easier.

Sweet Moo-moo Cow what are you thinking?

The boys shared this tractor.....

Many a hay ride was had behind this tractor. Memories. Good memories.

We all learned a lesson in our house this weekend. Well, we learned lots of lessons. But they all sort of are summed up by the old saying, "the show must go on". As my daughter learned after being up half the night. Dead tired, but she didn't want to miss her softball team pictures at 8:30 AM and then a her first game of the season to follow. Ugh....

And well, then there was the minor detail of our house guest from France that were arriving at 10:45am. They were supposed to come in the night before, but there flight was canceled. Which I now see was an answer to prayer. What a bummer it would have been for them to arrive and be awoken to a huge roaring barn fire at four in the morning, their first night of vacation in the USA.

Oh golly...then there was the fact that we had baked all these cinnamon rolls Friday, and lots of people were going to be stopping by to pick them up. My brother-n-law had the driveway blocked because of snoopers.....I had to break the news that I had fortyish some people stopping by to pick up their rolls. I'm an annoying sister-n-law.

My eyes were burning out of my head with exhaustion, I wanted to put a sign on the door telling everyone to leave their moolah on the table and help themselves to the cinnamon rolls. But once I took a shower and washed the smoke off, and drank a pot-O-joe I was ready to face a new day.

Which we thankfully were given. A new day to spend handing out baked goods to benefit the camp we love, a new day to color Easter eggs with good friends that arrived safely and well rested.

A new day to redeem myself with this dog, that I found out is not that dumb after all. He loves us unconditionally, and is apparently extremely tuned in to his surrounding. Although, one would have never known it, unless they lit a fire under his bah-hookie.

Luv Ya,